Trump Hasn’t Been To COVID-19 Task Force Meeting In 5 Months

The US has now surpassed 11 million coronavirus cases as of Sunday, November 15, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, prompting tighter restrictions throughout various states.

Established in January, the task force initially met daily during the first few months of the pandemic. However, by October, it was reported that meetings had been scaled back to just once a week, with priority instead given to an ‘economic reopening’.

A senior administration official has reportedly also stated that Trump is no longer being regularly briefed on the ongoing pandemic by his team of medical experts, alleging that he rarely reads the daily coronavirus reports prepared by White House coronavirus response coordinator, Deborah Birx.

Despite the increasingly grim nature of the reports, the administration’s top medical experts are said to have been infrequent visitors at the White House in recent weeks.

Former World Health Organization assistant director general Jack Chow, who also served as US ambassador for global HIV/AIDS during George W. Bush’s administration, expressed alarm at Trump’s approach to the pandemic, telling The Washington Post:

The duty of a president is to protect the national security of the United States, and this is the most prominent disease of mass destruction America’s ever faced, and we have a commander in chief who has run away from the problem and has made it worse.

We had an opportunity twice over the past eight months to bring it down to safer levels, and we failed. We are on the verge of losing control of this pandemic.

According to The Washington Post:

This account of Trump’s indifference and inaction on the newly surging coronavirus pandemic is based on interviews with more than a dozen administration officials, Trump allies, health advisers and others familiar with the response, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The account details how Trump has increasingly ignored the advice of his own public experts, even as the number of cases continues to rise.

For example, Birx has reportedly proposed to reduce in-person dining in restaurants and bars on several occasions. However, Trump has dismissed these suggestions.

The president has also reportedly ignored calls by Dr. Fauci for firmer public messaging on the importance of wearing masks, going against all accepted medical advice.